Section 2. Attitudes and Persuasion Techniques
Attitude
Attitude : A set of emotions beliefs and behaviours towards a particular object, person, issue or event
→ consistent way in which we operate
→ Attitude can be:
Positive: liking for a person, object, issue or event
Negative: dislike for a person, object, issue or event
Neutral: not interested in having an attitude to the person, object, issue or event
Ambivalent: having both positive and negative attitudes to the person, object, issue or event
→ Structure of Attitude: ABC Model
Affective : Talking about our emotions
Cognitive : Talking about the way we think
Behavioural : Talking about the way we act
→ often in agreement with the affective and cognitive part of attitude, but not always due to:
factors within an attitude (strength, accessibility, specificity, ambivalence)
personality (high / low self monitors)
outside factors such as social pressures
change in one component often leads to change in others
Example Model:
→ Affect: Football makes me feel disgust |
→ Behaviour: I don’t go to football | Components of a negative attitude
→ Cognition: I think football is a waste of time |
Workbook Exercises for Attitude:
Attitude Towards Smoking:
→ Feel like its gross
→ Doesn’t smoke
→ Smoking harms your health
Attitude Towards Tattoos
→ I like tattoos
→ I get a tattoo
→ Tattoo’s help me express my identity and individuality
Attitude Towards Fitness and Exercise
→ I dislike having to exercise as it hurts
→ I exercise though
→ Exercise helps mental strength and physical wellbeing
Persuasion / Attitude Change
Persuasion : The art of convincing others to change their attitudes or behaviours
→ process by which a persons attitudes or behaviour are influenced by communication from other people
Examples include advertising and political persuasion
→ Theories of Persuasion Relating to External Factors that Affects Persuasion
Yale Attitude Change Approach: Message content, source and audience characteristics affecting persuasion
The Source - WHO
expert
attractive
likeable
fast talking
trustworthy
powerful
similar to the audience
The Message (content) - WHAT
strong emotions
statistical / factual information
repetitive
genuine
two sided
novel ideas
The Audience - WHOM
deep thinking people (can relate to string arguments)
high self monitors
younger people (older people usually have set pre-existing attitudes)
low esteem people
Central Route | Peripheral Route | |
---|---|---|
Source | Expertise in information | Fame / Attractiveness |
Message | Facts / Statistics | Novelty |
Audience | Intelligence and Cognitive Capacity of viewers | High Self Monitors |
Direct Experience | Long lasting persuasion | ———————————————— |
Indirect Experience | ———-———————————- | Temporary persuasion |
Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM): Central and peripheral routes to persuasion
→ Central route to persuasion
Method: (FIIRM)
facts and statistics provide detail information
intellectual processing is required to think carefully about the information and evaluate it
intelligence and cognitive capacity are required to follow the arguments presented
reason is used to argue the point of interest
motivation is required to pay attention to the arguments
long lasting persuasion
Characteristics of good persuasion
The attitude change is likely to be permanent because the processing is deep and thorough
The persuasive argument may be come part of the audiences belief structure
→ Peripheral route to persuasion
Characteristics:
beauty / attractiveness
short lived / temporary persuasion
fame
similarity
pleasure
novelty
fun
few information given (facts and statistics)
few intellectual opinions
little use for:
cognitive capacity,
intelligence
motivation to think
reason
Experience Model: Direct / indirect experience
→ Direct Experience
Event happens to individual
quite strong change in attitude
long lasting persuasion
→ Indirect Experience
Event happens to someone else
less effect on change in attitude
temporary persuasion
→ Strategies of Persuasion
Norm of reciprocity (what you give, you get back)
→ Social norm that involves in-kind exchanges between people - responding to another’s action with another equivalent action (can be both positive and negative)
Door in the face (ridiculous thing, say no, smaller thing, feel guilty so say yes)
→ An unreasonably large request is asked before making a smaller one that is more likely to be agreed to
Foot in the door (small thing, say yes, bigger thing, say yes more)
→ A smaller offer is made first to coerce them and then bigger offers are made throughout to increase the likelihood of agreement
Various factors influence attitude formation and / or attitude change
Accessibility : easily related to strength and can be brought to mind quickly if in convenience
Specificity : quite particular to the situation at hand
Section 2. Attitudes and Persuasion Techniques
Attitude
Attitude : A set of emotions beliefs and behaviours towards a particular object, person, issue or event
→ consistent way in which we operate
→ Attitude can be:
Positive: liking for a person, object, issue or event
Negative: dislike for a person, object, issue or event
Neutral: not interested in having an attitude to the person, object, issue or event
Ambivalent: having both positive and negative attitudes to the person, object, issue or event
→ Structure of Attitude: ABC Model
Affective : Talking about our emotions
Cognitive : Talking about the way we think
Behavioural : Talking about the way we act
→ often in agreement with the affective and cognitive part of attitude, but not always due to:
factors within an attitude (strength, accessibility, specificity, ambivalence)
personality (high / low self monitors)
outside factors such as social pressures
change in one component often leads to change in others
Example Model:
→ Affect: Football makes me feel disgust |
→ Behaviour: I don’t go to football | Components of a negative attitude
→ Cognition: I think football is a waste of time |
Workbook Exercises for Attitude:
Attitude Towards Smoking:
→ Feel like its gross
→ Doesn’t smoke
→ Smoking harms your health
Attitude Towards Tattoos
→ I like tattoos
→ I get a tattoo
→ Tattoo’s help me express my identity and individuality
Attitude Towards Fitness and Exercise
→ I dislike having to exercise as it hurts
→ I exercise though
→ Exercise helps mental strength and physical wellbeing
Persuasion / Attitude Change
Persuasion : The art of convincing others to change their attitudes or behaviours
→ process by which a persons attitudes or behaviour are influenced by communication from other people
Examples include advertising and political persuasion
→ Theories of Persuasion Relating to External Factors that Affects Persuasion
Yale Attitude Change Approach: Message content, source and audience characteristics affecting persuasion
The Source - WHO
expert
attractive
likeable
fast talking
trustworthy
powerful
similar to the audience
The Message (content) - WHAT
strong emotions
statistical / factual information
repetitive
genuine
two sided
novel ideas
The Audience - WHOM
deep thinking people (can relate to string arguments)
high self monitors
younger people (older people usually have set pre-existing attitudes)
low esteem people
Central Route | Peripheral Route | |
---|---|---|
Source | Expertise in information | Fame / Attractiveness |
Message | Facts / Statistics | Novelty |
Audience | Intelligence and Cognitive Capacity of viewers | High Self Monitors |
Direct Experience | Long lasting persuasion | ———————————————— |
Indirect Experience | ———-———————————- | Temporary persuasion |
Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM): Central and peripheral routes to persuasion
→ Central route to persuasion
Method: (FIIRM)
facts and statistics provide detail information
intellectual processing is required to think carefully about the information and evaluate it
intelligence and cognitive capacity are required to follow the arguments presented
reason is used to argue the point of interest
motivation is required to pay attention to the arguments
long lasting persuasion
Characteristics of good persuasion
The attitude change is likely to be permanent because the processing is deep and thorough
The persuasive argument may be come part of the audiences belief structure
→ Peripheral route to persuasion
Characteristics:
beauty / attractiveness
short lived / temporary persuasion
fame
similarity
pleasure
novelty
fun
few information given (facts and statistics)
few intellectual opinions
little use for:
cognitive capacity,
intelligence
motivation to think
reason
Experience Model: Direct / indirect experience
→ Direct Experience
Event happens to individual
quite strong change in attitude
long lasting persuasion
→ Indirect Experience
Event happens to someone else
less effect on change in attitude
temporary persuasion
→ Strategies of Persuasion
Norm of reciprocity (what you give, you get back)
→ Social norm that involves in-kind exchanges between people - responding to another’s action with another equivalent action (can be both positive and negative)
Door in the face (ridiculous thing, say no, smaller thing, feel guilty so say yes)
→ An unreasonably large request is asked before making a smaller one that is more likely to be agreed to
Foot in the door (small thing, say yes, bigger thing, say yes more)
→ A smaller offer is made first to coerce them and then bigger offers are made throughout to increase the likelihood of agreement
Various factors influence attitude formation and / or attitude change
Accessibility : easily related to strength and can be brought to mind quickly if in convenience
Specificity : quite particular to the situation at hand